Guide to the Raymond Carver photographs
UCSC OAC Unit
University of California, Santa Cruz
2006
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz 95064
speccoll@library.ucsc.edu
Note
Finding aid updated in 2018.
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Raymond Carver photographs
Creator:
Carver, James
Identifier/Call Number: MS.130
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
1 box
Date (inclusive): 1938-1988
Abstract: A small collection of thirty one family
snapshots of Raymond Carver's early family life.
Language of Material:
English
Access
Collection open for research.
Use Restrictions
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
Preferred Citation
Raymond Carver photographs . MS 130. Special Collections and Archives, University Library,
University of California, Santa Cruz.
Acquisition Information
Purchased from James Carver in 2006.
Biography
Raymond Clevie Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon on May 25, 1938. In 1941 his family
moved to Yakima, where Carver grew up, graduating from Yakima High School in 1956. On June
7, 1957, he married 16 year old Maryann Burk, who had just graduated from high school. In
December of 1957 their first child, daughter Christine LaRae, was born. A son, Vance
Lindsay, was born in October of the following year.
For the next dozen years one or both of the young parents were enrolled in various colleges
and universities while holding a continuous succession of menial jobs. Carver wrote his
first story, "Furious Seasons," while a student at Chico State College in California. After
two years there, the family moved to Eureka, where he attended Humboldt State College,
eventually becoming editor of the campus literary magazine Toyon. In the spring of 1962
Western Humanities Review accepted "Pastoral" -- Carver's first story published. The very
same day, he received word that Target had accepted his poem "The Brass Ring" for
publishing.
After graduating from Humboldt in February 1963, Carver moved to Berkeley, but by autumn
the family had moved to Iowa City so he could attend the two-year master's program of the
Writers' Workshop. They stayed only one year, however, before moving back to Sacramento,
California, where Carver's parents were living. Financial difficulties continued, but he
continued to write, and began to garner some success in getting work published. The next
several years found them moving often, ending up in the Bay Area by the late 1960's. In 1970
"Neighbors" became the first of Carver's stories to be accepted by a major magazine,
Esquire.
In 1971 he began teaching, despite finding it "a terrifying prospect." His first lecturer
position was at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The following year was at UC
Berkeley. During this time his drinking became more and more of a problem. In the 1973-74
academic year, he tried to teach at both the Iowa Writers' Workshop and at UCSC, without
either school being aware he was teaching at the other. Meanwhile, his first collection of
short stories, Put Yourself In My Shoes, appeared. Nonetheless, by the following year, when
he was to teach at UC Santa Barbara, his alcoholism made the situation untenable and he was
forced to resign. He continued a downward spiral, hospitalized for acute alcoholism on four
separate occasions.
June 2, 1977, was called by Carver "the line of demarcation" between his "two lives": it
was then he had his last alcoholic drink. It was too late to save his family life (he and
Maryann eventually divorced but were already separated, and his children were estranged from
him), but he soon recovered his ability to teach and desire to write. By the 1978-79
academic year, he held a writer-in-residence position at the University of Texas, El Paso.
There he began a relationship with the poet Tess Gallagher, whom he had met the previous
year at a conference in Dallas. They moved in together January 1, 1979, and they stayed
together until his death in 1988. Jobs took them to Tuscon, Arizona, and then to Syracuse,
New York, where Carver had his first permanent teaching post. Throughout the 1980's he
continued to write stories and poems, enjoying ever-increasing success. Then in the fall of
1987 Carver was diagnosed with lung cancer, which by the next spring had spread to his
brain. In June of 1988 he and Tess were married in Reno, Nevada. They returned to their home
in Port Angeles, Washington, making only a brief trip to Alaska before Raymond Carver died
on August 2, 1988.
Scope and Content of Collection
A small collection of thirty one family snapshots of Raymond Carver and his family from his
earliest years to his death.
Related Material
MS 131 Raymond Carver correspondence
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photographs
Carver, Raymond, 1938-1988
Ella (mother), Raymond Jr. 1
1938
Ella and Ray Sr. holding Raymond Jr. 2
ca. 1938
Raymond and Dad (Ray Sr.) 3
ca. 1940
Raymond and Dad, Easter morning 5
ca. 1942-1943
Junior (Raymond) 6
ca. 1943
Raymond, James, Dick & Sue 7
ca. 1945
Junior (Raymond), James & MuggsJunior (Raymond), James &
Muggs
8
ca. 1945
[Father, Raymond, Mother & James] 9
ca. 1944
[James, Raymond & Father - fishing] 11
ca. 1948
Ray & James 12-14
ca. 1946
Grandfather & Grandmother Casey, Ray & James 15
ca. 1948
Ray, Toby the dog, & James 17
ca. 1952
Ray, Ella [Mother] and James 18
ca. 1952
Raymond, James, Grandmother and Grandfather Casey 19
ca. 1954
Ray, Maryann, James 20
ca. 1956
James and Ray on steps of Apartment 408 in Chico, CA 21
ca. 1956
Raymond, Ray's Father (C.R.), Aunt and Uncle (Father's sister and
brother)
22
ca. 1956
James, Ray, Dad 23
ca. 1956
Ray at Chico State 24
ca. 1958
Ray and Maryanne at their wedding reception 25
June 7, 1957
Maryanne, Ray, Christy, James in Arcata 26
ca. 1961
Christie, Ray, Maryanne and James 27
ca. 1960-1970
Ray, Uncle Bill Archer in Yakima 30
ca. 1986
[Memorial photograph of Raymond Carver] 31
1988
